HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 29 



form, the quality of the fiefh, and its propenfity to fat- 

 nefs, are principles confiftent with each other, are fre- 

 quently found united in the fame individual, and heredi- 

 tary in particular lines or families of cattle. — In regard to 

 the means of improvement, it has long been an eftablifli- 

 ed maxim, that, to improve the breed, it is neceflary to 

 crofs it with others of an alien flock j under an opinion, 

 that continuing to breed from the fame line weakens the 

 (lock. This idea, however rooted it may have been in 

 the minds of former practitioners, is now entirely fet 

 afide by the modern practice of breeding, not from the 

 fame line only, but from the fame family : The fire and 

 the daughter, the fon and the mother, the brother and 

 fifler, are now permitted to improve their own kind. — 

 This practice is well known under the term of breeding 

 in-and-in ; and, in this way, the improvement of the fe- 

 veral breeds has advanced rapidly to a height unknown 

 before in any age or nation. 



The practice of letting out Bulls by the feafon, has 

 contributed very materially towards the improvement of 

 this valuable breed ; as, by this means, one Bull, inftead 

 of being ufeful to his proprietor only, may, in a few 

 years, extend the benefits of his (lock through a whole 

 diflrict ; and fo fully are the ftock-mafters convinced of 

 its advantages, that eighty guineas have been given for 

 the ufe of a Bull for one feafon. Some Bulls are in fuch 

 eftimation, as to leap at the extraordinary price of five 

 guineas a Cow : And it is, perhaps, a circumftance 

 worth mentioning, that Mr Fowler, of Rollright, in Ox- 

 fordfhire, in 1789, for ten Bull calves, refufed five hun- 

 dred guineas. 



Great improvements have alfo, of late years, been 

 made in the old Lancajlnre kind, both in fize and beauty. 



